Hard work and perseverance pays off for those fighting for channel widening

Highlands Today staff
Published: November 6, 2013

The squeaky wheel often does get the grease - if patience, perseverance and a legitimate cause is at stake. In the case of dredging the channel between Lake Jack Jackson and Little Lake Jackson, all of these things applied.

Residents have argued for years that the channel going under the U.S. 27 bridge was unnavigable due to sand and debris dating back to the summer of hurricanes in 2004. The Florida Department of Transportation refused to reopen the channel wide enough to allow smaller boats through the opening. After years of meetings, letters and making their case to legislators and even the governor, they were told the channel will be dredged and widened. Congratulations to these folks.

There's no good reason why this wasn't taken care of years ago. Boats could get through before, so they should have been able to keep that channel open. No good excuse exists why there was no action for so long.

The group of residents were persistent, and used every means at their disposal to keep fighting for this. There was plenty of frustration, of course, but they stayed at it. Finally they convinced legislative leaders and the governor to make it happen, and they did.

It makes sense that the channel be open and innavigable, and that's what's going to happen in the next year or two. It just goes to show that patience and hard work pays off.

Are insurance companies using Obamacare as an excuse to gouge consumers?

In the ongoing furor of implementing the Affordable Care Act, and the three-ring circus associated with it, it will be interesting to see how the big insurance companies' profits hold up after they jack up rates, change offerings, drop policies and do so much that has people outraged.

The insurance industry has claimed allowing pre-existing conditions and increasing the age that young adults can stay on their parents' policy will cost them, and they have to make adjustments. Perhaps that's the case, but it's also being said that this gives insurance companies an opportunity to gouge consumers to keep their profits flowing in.

Like so much of Obamacare, we hear prognostications of it being horrible without any real proof - yet. Maybe it will be a complete failure, but maybe it won't. Looking at insurance companies' financial reports should be telling in the coming years.